Frequently Asked Questions

Our Services

Supportkids is not a government agency funded by tax dollars, so we must charge fees in order to continue helping custodial parents collect their unpaid child support.

We offer a choice in how those fees are paid. With FlexPay, a monthly fee of $59 is paid each month for as long as you use our services. While this may be an ideal option for some, many people prefer not to pay anything out of pocket, which is why we also offer CollectPay.

With CollectPay, no fees are paid until we start collecting your child support. Once payments start coming in, our fee of 34% is deducted from the money we collect. If we do not collect, you owe us nothing.

The biggest difference between the state and Supportkids is the level of attention that your case receives when it is with us. While we share some of the same collection tools, we also stay on top of your case, contacting the non-custodial parent directly, looking for payment breaks and investigating alternate ways to get you the money owed. We make sure each case gets the personalized attention it deserves, from enrollment through collections. State methods are effective for some cases, but unfortunately many still fall through the cracks. For those, we offer a great alternative option.

Every case that comes to us is unique so it is impossible to say exactly when payments will start coming in. The quicker and more completely you provide necessary information about your case, the quicker we can move to the collection process where we can focus on getting payments into your household.

Enrolling for our services is easy! Click the Get Started button, and we will walk you through the enrollment process. Once you’ve signed up, we will be in contact to gather details about your case history and advise you what documents we need to proceed so our team can get to work collecting your child support.

We have a couple of options for getting you the money we collect on your behalf.

We recommend that you submit your bank information on our secure website so we can deposit your money directly into your bank account.

If that is not an option for you, we will send your payments via a TotalPay Visa card. TotalPay cards are accepted at millions of locations nationwide that accept Visa debit cards. Once your child support payments are loaded onto a TotalPay Card they will be ready for use immediately. If you opt for a TotalPay card, you will receive full instructions on how to use it, including how to obtain cash from it without incurring any fees.

Once we get a payment, in most cases it takes 5-7 days from the day we receive it to process the payment and send it on to you. It may take longer if the non-custodial parent submits a personal check as payment.

You can set up direct deposit by logging into your Supportkids account and selecting Direct Deposit from the menu. Once your information is entered or updated, payments to you will be deposited directly into your bank account. You must have a US bank account to set up direct deposit. If you have a case with us but do not have a log in for an online account, please contact Client Services at 512-437-6001.

Child Support

The first step in getting child support started is to have a child support court order established. Contact your local government child support office to get the ball rolling. They will be able to tell you the best way to proceed based on your particular situation.

Typically, the child support amount is based on a calculation of the non-custodial parent’s income. If you feel that you are not getting the proper amount, based on how much the non-custodial parent makes, you can contact your local child support agency and request that your case be reviewed for a modification.

Child support agencies typically flag a case for a tax intercept once the arrears reach a certain threshold. The threshold amount depends on whether you ever received TANF benefits from the state, and ranges from $250 to $500 in arrears.

If you think you are eligible for a payment from a tax return but did not receive it, there could be a number of reasons why. Please contact your local child support agency so they can help you determine why you did not get the money you were expecting.

Cases in which the non-custodial parent works for cash, job-hops, or lives in a different state can be some of the most challenging. The best thing to do is to continue providing as much current information about the non-custodial parent as you can to your local child support office. You might also consider hiring an attorney or a private agency, like Supportkids, so you have more people working on your side.